ORLANDO—A trio of decision makers from some of the nation's biggest institutional investors shared their observations on the multifamily market and strategies for the coming year in an informational session moderated by Real Capital Analytics' founder and CEO, Bob White. The panel, "Awash in Capital: The Impact of Global Investment on the US Market," was a highlight of the NMHC's 2016 Apartment Strategies Outlook Conference, which attracted about 1,800 attendees here on Tuesday.

White kicked off the discussion with an overview of the biggest apartment buyers of the past year. The Blackstone Group, not surprisingly, was at the top of the list, with over $9 billion in multifamily buys in 2015. Yet more than half of the figure can be attributed to the firm's $5.3-billion acquisition of Stuyvesant Town in New York City, pointed out Blackstone principal Olivia John.

The fact that the Stuy Town deal was an off-market transaction was a huge boon for the company, John noted, since the landscape has been incredibly competitive. One thing she noticed as the Blackstone team was out looking for opportunities in the market, she said, was that "all of a sudden we and our competitors—Lone Star, Starwood, etc.—were all actively competing for the same deals."